Letters To The Editor

In response to your Monday editorial "Hampton Secrets," it should be noted that public outreach for the Crossroads Project has been a high priority.

The city has made full-blown presentations to the community, providing a detailed overview of the project's site plan, market analysis and financing.

At the same time, there are instances where confidentiality about the project is protected by law, to help maintain the city's competitive posture in the marketplace.

This is in the best interests of the city and its residents. It is at times like this that matters may be discussed in closed session.

The discussion in executive session on Oct. 25 included real estate matters and was justified.

On reflection, there could have been added justification in the posting, noting that the meeting was to discuss the Crossroads Project marketing strategy as compared to other venues. This was the result of an administrative error.

The Crossroads Project has tremendous potential to strengthen the city of Hampton's economic engine. It is designed to generate significant new revenue for the city - revenue that can pay for city services for years into the future.

Edward M. Novi

Public Communications Officer

City of Hampton

Library lost own books

Regarding Oct. 23 article on overdue books and videos in Newport News. I agree that anyone who borrows these items from our library definitely should be willing to return them in a timely fashion.

However, in some instances it is the library's fault or error that is also part of the problem.

A few years ago my son checked out the book "Misty of Chincoteague" while at the same time my wife checked out some books. This was at the Denbigh branch of the library.

The following week my wife took these books back to the library including the book my son took out. They were placed in the return bin as is usually done.

Quite some time later we got a notice that "Misty of Chincoteague" was way overdue and had a fine on it.

My wife went to the library and told them that she had returned the book to them. The clerk said she would look for the book.

Later, the library sent another notice to us stating that they did not have the book and that we would have to pay for the book.

Needless to say this upset my wife and my son as they said they would suspend the family's library cards if we did not pay them for a book that they lost.

My wife argued the point with them but she did wind up paying for a book that the library lost.

Both her and my son made it a point not to deal with the library since this happened.

I cannot help but wonder how often this has happened to others who did the right thing but had items lost or misplaced by the library.

To all of you who check out items, please return them. When you do, try and make sure the library checks them in even if you have to stand there and wait for them to do it.

John Pritchett

Newport News

Spread the burden

Reference Susie Dorsey's Oct. 8 column. She and every other super liberal extremist democrat never saw a tax they didn't love. Conversely, they never saw a tax deduction they didn't hate.

Allowing people to keep their own money is unheard of. They consider all money to be the government's, that will let us keep what it thinks you may need.

Who are the taxpayers? The liberals say that the top 1 percent of taxpayers should not get a break. They must pay their "fair share."

The top 1 percenters are people who earn more than $250,000 per year. They pay 33.2 percent of all income taxes, according to the Statistics of Income Bulletin, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

So, 1 percent of the people pay one-third of all income taxes.

To a liberal democrat, that sounds fair. They are just paying their "fair share."

The top 5 percent of all taxpayers (those making more than $108,000) pay 51.9 percent of all income taxes, more than half of all income taxes collected. They make up one-twentieth of the working population and earn 31.8 percent of total income but pay nearly 52 percent of all taxes.

What would happen if the total tax burden were spread evenly among all income earners and everyone paid his or her "fair share?" You can bet there would be an anti-government/anti-tax revolt like you have never seen before.

Liberalism would be nothing more than a sad note in our history.

John R. Grant

Carrollton

Hostile waters

I am disturbed by the Clinton administration's reluctance to acknowledge that the attack on the USS Cole was caused because of an information leak by the port authorities in Yemen.

As president of a company specializing in terrorism prevention, it is obvious the attackers knew well in advance that a destroyer was coming into port.

I don't believe it was pure luck that the bomb went off near the galley. The attackers knew well enough in advance that they were able to study the layout of a destroyer. Knowing the layout of the destroyer allowed them to select the point that would cause the most casualties.